Thursday, September 29, 2005

Every phone in my house is ringing off the hook. It's all going to happen now:

Judith Miller, The New York Times reporter who has been jailed since July 6 for refusing to identify a source, has been released, The Inquirer has learned.

Miller left an Alexandria, Va. jail late this afternoon, a jail official said.

She was released after she had a telephone conversation with the Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, sources said. In that conversation, Libby reaffirmed that he had released Miller from a promise of confidentiality more than a year ago, sources said.

I got into an otherwise pointless email swap with Paul McMasters today from the First Amendment Center, who wound up his email with this:

I think it is a shame that a two-year, multi-million-dollar investigation appears likely to conclude next month with no finding of a crime, let alone a criminal, and our government has nothing more to show for that use of taxpayer resources than a reporter in jail who wrote nothing about the case.

Suppose he'd like to make a side wager now? According to NBC news, Judy will testify tomorrow. I think the whole "Libby gave her a release" story is just so much bs, a fig leaf for her to hide behind, and I doubt whatever "deal" she cut at this point allows her to do much more than keep her ass out of jail. And if her testimony didn't incriminate anyone, she would have given it long ago -- any examination of her behavior to date show her to be a complete stranger to commonly held notions of "principle."

People keep asking me "how high up is this going to go?" And my answer is, as high as Fitzgerald can get anyone to talk. I can only guess, but the thing to keep in mind about this crowd is if you are counting on copious amounts of character to keep someone from ratting out the whole bunch, it's going to be flip city.

You think Bolton's gonna do 20 years to protect Cheney? Surely you jest.

Update: David Johnston and Doug Jehl have a must-read four page article up at the NYT on Judy's deal, and they indicate that Libby was indeed her source. The "Libby waiver" story still sounds like bunk, but it does allow Judy to bray a bit about how she lived up to her "principles." (Yawn)

More soon.

Update II: Favorite comment so far, from Talk Left: "Scooter" is a cute name for a guy doing hard time in an FCI. That will make him plenty of "friends."